Methods and apparatus to measure exposure to streaming media

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus to measure exposure to streaming media are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a processor, and memory including machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to: extract a series of tags associated with media playing on a presentation device, different ones of the tags in the series of the tags embedded in the media at different temporal positions within a duration of the media; identify a first tag from the series of tags to report to a central facility, the first tag identified based on a temporal proximity of the first tag to an event associated with the media playing on the presentation device; and transmit the identified first tag to the central facility, other tags in the series of tags not being transmitted to the central facility.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 15/638,127 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,231,013), filed Jun. 29, 2017, andtitled “Methods and Apparatus to Measure Exposure to Streaming Media,”which arises from a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/266,118 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,699,499), filedApr. 30, 2014, and titled “Methods and Apparatus to Measure Exposure toStreaming Media.” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/638,127 and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/266,118 are hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to measuring media exposure, and, moreparticularly, to methods and apparatus to measure exposure to streamingmedia.

BACKGROUND

Internet access to media has become widespread. Media is now frequentlystreamed to consumers via streaming services such as, Netflix™ Hulu™,and others. Streaming enables media to be delivered to and presented bya wide variety of media presentation devices, such as smart TVs, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digitalassistants, smartphones, gaming consoles, etc. A significant portion ofmedia (e.g., content and/or advertisements) is presented via streamingto such devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system constructed in accordancewith the teachings of this disclosure for measuring exposure tostreaming media.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the examplemedia monitor of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example series of metadata tags extracted by themedia monitor of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 over a period of time.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example series of metering data selected from theexample series of metadata tags of FIG. 3 for transmission by the mediamonitor of FIGS. 1 and/or 2.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the examplecentral facility of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions that may be executed to implement the example media monitorof FIGS. 1 and/or 2.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions that may be executed to implement the example centralfacility of FIGS. 1 and/or 5.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example processor platform capable ofexecuting the example machine-readable instructions of FIGS. 6 and/or 7to implement the example media monitor of FIGS. 1 and/or 2, and/or theexample central facility of FIGS. 1 and/or 5.

The figures are not to scale. Wherever possible, the same referencenumbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying writtendescription to refer to the same or like parts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The use of media presentation devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, MP3players, personal computers, etc.) to present streaming media availablevia the Internet has increased in recent years. As different types ofmedia applications (e.g., a Netflix™ application, a Hulu™ application, aPandora™ application, etc.) for such media devices have been created,the popularity of streaming media has increased. In some instances,service providers enable the playing of media in an Internet browserand/or via a specific application (“app”) running on a mediapresentation device. In this manner, some households have eliminatedtraditional sources of media (e.g., satellite television, cabletelevision) in favor of such streaming devices. In view of theincreasing popularity of accessing media in this manner, understandinghow users interact with the streaming media (e.g., such as byunderstanding what media is presented, how the media is presented, whatdemographic segments are using this technology, etc.) provides valuableinformation to service providers, advertisers, content providers,manufacturers, and/or other entities.

Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacturedisclosed herein may be used to measure exposure to streaming media.Some such example methods, apparatus, and/or articles of manufacturemeasure such exposure based on media metadata. Some such examplescorrelate media exposure with user demographics, and/or media devicetypes. Some examples disclosed herein are used to monitor streamingmedia transmissions received at media presentation devices adapted toreceive streaming media such as a DVD player, a Smart TV, an Apple TV®,a Roku™ media player, a Boxee™ media player, a Sony PlayStation™, aMicrosoft® Xbox®, an Apple iPad®, and/or any other device capable ofplaying streaming and/or Internet based (e.g., IP protocol network band)media. Example monitoring processes disclosed herein collect metadatafrom network communications associated with streaming media presentedvia such presentation devices and associate the metadata withdemographic information of users of the media devices. In some examples,the users are people (e.g., potential audience members) that have agreedto participate as panelists in a research study. In some examples, thepanelists correspond to a statistically selected subset of all potentialaudience members that is representative of the whole population ofinterest. In some such panel-based monitoring systems, the panelistsagree to provide detailed demographic information about themselves. Inthis manner, detailed exposure metrics are generated based on collectedmetadata and associated user demographics, which can then bestatistically extrapolated to an entire population of interest (e.g., alocal market, a national market, a demographic segment, etc.).

Rather than relying on consenting panelists volunteering for a specificresearch study, some example monitoring processes disclosed hereinemploy a census level methodology and/or collect metadata associatedwith streaming media presented on presentation devices from most of oreven the entire audience member population (e.g., from all users wherethe corresponding metadata is able to be collected). Although audiencemembers in such census level approaches typically have not specificallyagreed to being monitored as part of a particular research study, insome examples, the users consent to such metadata collection based onthe terms of use of the browser, application, or other software throughwhich the media is streamed and which implements functionalityassociated with media monitoring as disclosed herein.

In some examples, the audience members in a census-wide research studymay not directly share any demographic information that can be tied totheir media exposure. However, in some examples, demographic informationis obtainable indirectly. For instance, in some examples, along with thecollected metadata, an audience measurement entity (e.g., the NielsenCompany (US) LLC) may collect and/or trigger forwarding of third party(e.g., cookies not associated with the audience measurement entity) webcookies stored on the presentation devices of audience members. In someexamples, the cookie is provided to a third party data providerassociated with the cookie (e.g., Facebook™, Yahoo™, Experian™, etc.)that does have access to demographic information associated with theusers (or presentation devices) corresponding to the cookies. Forexample, cookies collected from all monitored audience members may besent to a social network provider, such as Facebook™, which storesdemographic information associated with its users. The social networkprovider (e.g., Facebook™) may identify which of its users correspondsto the cookies provided by the audience measurement entity to thenidentify the users' demographic information. To maintain privacy, thesocial network provider (e.g., Facebook™) may aggregate and anonymizethe demographic information based on the cookies collected by theaudience measurement entity. The social network or other databaseproprietors (e.g., Experian) may provide the aggregated demographic datato the audience measurement entity for association with the mediaexposure metrics determined from the collected metadata. In this manner,audience measurement can be performed on entire populations (at leastamong all users where the corresponding metadata can be collected)without the need for statistical extrapolation as in the panel-basedexamples. Example implementations of collecting and aggregatingdemographic information via third party database proprietors aredisclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/513,148, filed on Sep.21, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,370,489; U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/915,381, filed on Jun. 11, 2013; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/025,575, filed on Sep. 12, 2013, all of which are hereby incorporatedby reference herein in their entireties.

In a streaming media distribution network, streaming media is receivedat a service provider from a media provider such as, for example, asatellite provider, a cable provider, a physical media provider (e.g., aDigital Versatile Disk (DVD)-by-mail service, etc.). The media isintended to be streamed from the service provider to one or morepresentation devices for presentation thereon in response to therequest(s) for the same. In some examples, the media device requestsmedia (e.g., content and/or advertising) from a service provider via anetwork (e.g., the Internet). In some examples, the request for media isa HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request, a Session InitiationProtocol (SIP) message, a domain name service (DNS) query, a filetransfer protocol (FTP) request, and/or any other type of request formedia. In some examples, the media is provided to the media devices as atransport stream. In some examples, metadata to be collected forpurposes of media monitoring is extracted from the transport stream atthe media presentation site (e.g., a monitored panelist location and/ora non-panelist audience member location). In some such examples, thetransport stream corresponds to a Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) 2transport stream sent according to a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)live streaming (HLS) protocol. However, the transport stream mayadditionally or alternatively correspond to and/or be sent according toany other past, present, or future protocol and/or format such as, forexample, MPEG 4, an HTTP Secure protocol (HTTPS), a file transferprotocol (FTP), a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP).

Watermarking refers to techniques used to identify media such astelevision broadcasts, radio broadcasts, advertisements (televisionand/or radio), downloaded media, streaming media, prepackaged media,etc. Existing watermarking techniques identify media by embedding codes(e.g., a watermark), such as media identifying information and/or anidentifier that may be mapped to media identifying information, into anaudio and/or video component having a signal characteristic sufficientto hide the watermark. As used herein, the terms “code” or “watermark”are used interchangeably and are defined to mean any identificationinformation (e.g., an identifier) that may be transmitted with, insertedand/or embedded in the audio or video of media (e.g., a program oradvertisement) for the purpose of identifying the media or for anotherpurpose such as tuning (e.g., a packet identifying header). As usedherein “media” refers to audio and/or visual (still or moving) contentand/or advertisements. To identify watermarked media, the watermark(s)are extracted and compared to reference watermarks and/or other metadatathat are mapped to media identifying information.

Unlike media monitoring techniques based on codes and/or watermarksincluded with and/or embedded in the monitored media, fingerprint orsignature-based media monitoring techniques generally use one or moreinherent characteristics of the monitored media during a monitoring timeinterval to generate a substantially unique proxy for the media. Such aproxy is referred to as a signature or fingerprint, and can take anyform (e.g., a series of digital values, a waveform, etc.) representativeof any aspect(s) of the media signal(s) (e.g., the audio and/or videosignals forming the media presentation being monitored). A goodsignature is one that is repeatable when processing the same mediapresentation, but that is unique relative to other (e.g., different)presentations of other (e.g., different) media. Accordingly, the term“fingerprint” and “signature” are used interchangeably herein and arehereby defined herein to mean “a proxy that may be used for identifyingmedia by comparison with a reference database and that is generated fromone or more inherent characteristics of the media.”

Signature-based media monitoring generally involves determining (e.g.,generating and/or collecting) signature(s) representative of a mediasignal (e.g., an audio signal and/or a video signal) output by amonitored media device and comparing the monitored signature(s) to oneor more reference signatures corresponding to known (e.g., reference)media sources. Various comparison criteria, such as a cross-correlationvalue, a Hamming distance, etc., can be evaluated to determine whether amonitored signature matches a particular reference signature. When amatch between the monitored signature and one of the referencesignatures is found, the monitored media can be identified ascorresponding to the particular reference media represented by thereference signature that matched the monitored signature. Becauseattributes, such as an identifier of the media, a presentation time, abroadcast channel, etc., are collected for the reference signature,these attributes may then be associated with the monitored media whosemonitored signature matched the reference signature.

In some examples, metadata embedded in the media is in a first format(e.g., a watermark, a code, etc.). In some examples, the metadata in thefirst format includes an audio watermark that is embedded in an audioportion of the media. Additionally or alternatively, the metadata in thefirst format can include a video (e.g., image) watermark that isembedded in a video portion of the media. Many presentation devices donot have access to the metadata in the first format, and/or in somecases, enough processing power to identify the metadata in the firstformat. Accordingly, in some examples, the service provider identifiesthe watermark, and converts the metadata into a second format readableby the presentation device. The metadata in the second format maycorrespond to, for example, metadata tags represented in a text format,such as a text format for inclusion in a timed text track file sent inassociation with the streaming media. In other examples, the metadatamay be in the form of ID3 tags. More generally, the teachings disclosedherein are applicable to any type of in-band metadata or out-of-bandmetadata recognizable and/or extractable by the presentation device(s)on which the media is playing.

In some disclosed examples, streaming media is delivered to the mediapresentation device using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). However, any otherpast, present, and/or future protocol(s) and/or method(s) of streamingmedia to the media device may additionally or alternatively be used suchas, for example, an HTTP Secure (HTTPS) protocol, a custom application,etc. Although HTTP is mentioned in this example, any other past,present, and/or future webpage language may additionally oralternatively be used. In some disclosed examples, a media presentationdevice uses an application (e.g., an “app”) to display media receivedvia HLS. Additionally or alternatively, in some disclosed examples themedia device uses a media player (e.g., a browser plugin, an app, aframework, an application programming interface (API), etc.) to presentmedia received via HLS.

In examples illustrated herein, a user requests the webpage or uniformresource locator (URL) associated with media of interest from a serviceprovider via a media presentation device. In some examples illustratedherein, the URL is directly associated with the media such thatrequesting the URL causes the media to start playing in the browser orapplication through which the URL is accessed. In other examples, therequested URL is not directly associated with the media of interest butincludes a plugin (e.g., Adobe® Flash® Player, Microsoft® Silverlight®,etc.) with functionality to access or request a separate URL that isdirectly associated with the media of interest and to playback thecorresponding media.

In some examples, as the media is provided to the presentation devicefor presentation, metadata associated with the media is also transmittedto the presentation device. In some examples, the metadata istransmitted in-band with the media. In some examples, the metadata istransmitted out-of-band with the media. In some examples illustratedherein, the metadata is embedded in the media as independent tags thatcan be identified and extracted by a media monitor implemented at thepresentation device. Once extracted, the metadata may be combined withother information such as, for example, cookie data associated with thedevice, player state data, etc. and transmitted to, for example, acentral facility for analysis and/or compilation with data collectedfrom other devices.

Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacturedisclosed herein involve extracting or collecting metadata (e.g.,watermarks, signatures, codes, metadata stored in an ID3 tag, extensiblemarkup language (XML) based metadata, and/or any other type of in-bandand/or out-of-band metadata in any other past, present, and/or futureformat) associated with streaming media transmissions (e.g., streamingaudio and/or video) at a client presentation device. In some examples,as the metadata is extracted from the media, it is transmitted to anaudience measurement entity (e.g., a central facility of the audiencemeasurement entity) for collection and subsequent analysis. In someexample methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacturedisclosed herein, the audience measurement entity also collectsdemographic information, either directly or indirectly, associated withusers of client presentation devices based on identifiers (e.g., anInternet protocol (IP) address, a cookie, a device identifier, etc.)associated with those presentation devices. Audience measurementinformation may then be generated based on the metadata and thedemographic information to indicate exposure metrics and/or demographicreach metrics. In some examples, the media exposure metrics are used todetermine demographic reach of streaming media, ratings for streamingmedia, engagement indices for streaming media, user affinitiesassociated with streaming media, broadcast media, and/or any otheraudience measure metric associated with streaming media, and/or locallystored media.

Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacturedisclosed herein may also be used to generate reports indicative ofmedia exposure metrics on one or more different types of streaming mediadevices (e.g., personal computers, portable devices, mobile phones,tablets, etc.). For example, an audience measurement entity may generatemedia exposure metrics based on metadata extracted from the streamingmedia at the media presentation device and/or similar devices. A reportis then generated based on the media exposure to indicate exposuremeasurements by device type. The report may also associate the mediaexposure metrics with demographic segments (e.g., age groups, genders,ethnicities, etc.) corresponding to the user(s) of the media device(s).

In some examples, to link demographics to the monitoring information togenerate reliable media exposure metrics, the audience measuremententity establishes a panel of users who have agreed to provide theirdemographic information and to have their streaming media activitiesmonitored. When an individual joins the panel, in such examples, theyprovide detailed information concerning their identity and demographics(e.g., gender, race, income, home location, occupation, etc.) to theaudience measurement entity. In some examples, the audience measuremententity sets an identifier (e.g., a panelist cookie) on the presentationdevice that enables the audience measurement entity to identify thepanelist. In particular, each panelist is provided with a media monitorthat reports access(es) to streamed media to a central facility of theaudience measurement entity. In some examples, the media monitor reportsaccess(es) to streamed media as the access(es) occur (e.g., streaming).In some examples, the media monitor caches (e.g., stores, buffers, etc.)data identifying the access(es) to streamed media and transmits thecached data identifying the access(es) (referred to herein as accessdata) to the central facility. In the illustrated example, the mediamonitor transmits the identifier (e.g., in the form of a cookie) and theaccess data to the audience measurement entity.

In some examples, rather than (or in addition to) establishing a panelof users, the audience measurement entity may desire to collect mediamonitoring information using a census-wide approach where media metricsare collected from all or substantially all (e.g., 80% or more) audiencemembers in a population. In some examples, the population is defined byall users of one or more apps, browsers, or other media playersassociated with media monitoring functionality disclosed herein. Whilecensus or universe-wide audience measurement data can provide accuratemedia metrics because they do not rely on statistical extrapolation,such approaches pose difficulties. For example, to provide accuratemedia monitoring, the exposure of audience members to media should betracked on an ongoing basis with relatively small temporal granularity.For example, in many typical panel-based approaches, metadata extractedfrom media playing on a panelist's presentation device is transmitted toa central facility of an audience measurement entity every two or tenseconds. As a result, in such situations, there can be as many as thirtypackets of information sent every minute from every panelistpresentation device presenting media. In a census-based measurementsystem there may be hundreds of thousands or even millions of differentpeople playing different types of media on one or more presentationdevices. Providing sufficient bandwidth on the servers at the centralfacility of the audience measurement entity to receive upwards of thirtytransmissions a minute from each of millions of devices is costprohibitive, if not impracticable. Likewise, even if there is sufficientbandwidth at the central facility servers, there may be processingand/or storage constraints limiting the amount of data the centralfacility can handle.

To overcome the above obstacles to census level audience measurement,examples disclosed herein reduce the amount of data transmitted from anyparticular presentation device by selecting a subset of the extractedmetadata for transmission to the central facility while omitting aseparate subset of the extracted metadata. That is, in some examples,the selected subset of metadata tags excludes at least one metadata tag.While the amount of metadata could be reduced by increasing the timeperiod between each extraction such that less metadata is collected,this reduces the granularity of the data. As a result, the collecteddata becomes less reliable. Accordingly, in examples disclosed herein,the media monitor does not reduce the frequency of metadata collected.Instead, individual metadata tags are collected at the same granularitydiscussed in the example above (e.g., every two seconds) but only asubset of the tags identified from the full series of extracted metadatatags (e.g., less than all of the metadata tags) are transmitted to thecentral facility. In some examples, the transmitted metadata tags in thesubset are selected based on triggers that identify key metadata tagsindicative of timing and content of presented media necessary forgenerating media metrics without selecting other metadata tags thatprovide redundant information to the key metadata tags.

In some examples, the selection of metadata tags for transmission istriggered based on media events detected by the media monitor at themedia presentation device. In some examples, media events include a URLevent corresponding to a change in the URL requested by the presentationdevice to access media. As a particular media program is associated witha particular URL, as long as a presentation device is accessing the sameURL, it can be inferred that media being presented on the presentationdevice has not changed (i.e., the media must correspond to the mediaassociated with the URL). Accordingly, in some examples, each time a URLevent is detected (e.g., a new URL is requested) a subset of metadatatags (e.g., one metadata tag) is selected for transmission to thecentral facility. In some examples, the metadata tag selected fortransmission is the first metadata tag extracted after the URL event.The timestamp contained within the first metadata tag serves to indicatethe beginning of streaming of the media associated with the URL, whichmay corresponding to the beginning of exposure of the correspondingaudience to the media.

In some examples, it may be desirable to know the ending time ofstreaming media. Accordingly, in some examples, each time a new URL isaccessed, the most recent metadata tag extracted (e.g., the lastmetadata tag extracted before the URL change event) is selected fortransmission to the audience measurement entity. As described above,while a subset of metadata tags are transmitted to the central facility,metadata tags are still being extracted by the media monitor of thepresentation device and cached in a local memory. Thus, the lastmetadata tag extracted from a media associated with a particular URL canbe identified at the time that the presentation device requests anotherURL (e.g., to begin streaming different media) because the last metadatatag will already be stored on the presentation device. In some examples,regardless of the length of exposure to media, only the first and lastmetadata tags associated with the streaming of the media will betransmitted to the central facility whereas all intermediate metadatatags will be omitted. In such examples, the total amount of data sent tothe central facility of the audience measurement entity is significantlyreduced compared to an implementation in which all extracted metadatatags are sent. Further, the information that would be provided fromtransmitting the entire series of metadata tags is preserved. Forexample, the first and last metadata tags extracted each include atimestamp indicating the beginning and ending of the streaming of thecorresponding media and, thus, indicate the time period of duration ofexposure of the audience of the presentation device to the media.Further, the first and last metadata tags include a media identifier toidentify the particular media. These media identifiers can be comparedto confirm that the media is in fact the same from the beginning time tothe ending time. Thus, in some examples, there is no relationshipbetween the rate at which metadata is embedded in and, thus, extractedfrom, the media (e.g., every two seconds) and the amount of data sent tothe central facility.

While URL events serve in some examples as media events to trigger theselection or identification of key metadata tags for transmission to acentral facility, in some examples, other media events associated withthe media player may occur between the beginning and ending of the mediastream (e.g., while the presentation device continues to access a singleURL). Accordingly, in some examples, other media events trigger theselection of metadata tags for reporting to the audience measuremententity. Example events include player state events corresponding to achange in a state of the media player presenting the media. Differentplayer states include, for example, play, pause, stop, replay, rewind,forward, and skip. As with the URL events, in some examples, a mostrecent metadata tag extracted prior to a player state event (e.g., lastmetadata tag extracted before the event) and/or a next metadata tagextracted immediately following the player state event (e.g., firstmetadata tag extracted after the event) are selected for transmission tothe central facility. In this manner, stop events, pause events, replayevents, etc., and their corresponding times and durations between thebeginning and ending of a media presentation are accounted for based onthe associated metadata tags (including timestamps) transmitted to thecentral facility.

In some disclosed examples, media event tags corresponding to the mediaevents (e.g., URL events and/or player state events) are generated andtransmitted along with the selected metadata tags to the centralfacility. In this manner, the particular reason (e.g., media event) thateach individual metadata tag was selected for reporting can bedetermined. In some examples, URL events can be inferred from adjacentmetadata tags based on whether the tags have a same media identifiercorresponding to the same media (thereby indicating the same URL) orhave different media identifiers corresponding to different media(thereby indicating a change in URL between the two tags). In someexamples, only player state event tags are transmitted along with themetadata tags. As used herein, “metering data” refers to the combinationof both the media event tags and the metadata tags transmitted to acentral facility.

Further, in some examples, to account for any other unexpectedcircumstance occurring during the presentation of media associated witha particular URL, additional metadata tags may be selected fortransmission to the central facility on a periodic or aperiodic basis.For example, while every metadata tag is extracted by the meterassociated with the presentation device, the metadata tag(s) extractedafter a threshold period of time since a prior report to the audiencemeasurement entity and/or after a threshold number of other metadatatags have been reported to the audience measurement entity aretransmitted to the central facility. Using this approach in connectionwith transmitting the metadata tags identified by the key media eventsdescribed above, less data is reported to the central facility of theaudience measurement entity with a larger temporal granularity withoutcompromising the accuracy of information thereby enabling reliableaudience measurement without overly taxing the bandwidth of thereporting network and/or the storage and/or processing capabilities ofthe server of the central facility. This distributed data selectionlogic thus solves the technical problems of collecting accurate audiencemeasurement statistics within a computer network of limited bandwidth,processing, and/or storage capabilities.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system 100 constructed inaccordance with the teachings of this disclosure for measuring exposureto streaming media. The example system 100 of FIG. 1 monitors mediaprovided by an example media provider 102 for presentation on an examplemedia presentation device 104 via an example network 106. The examplesystem 100 of FIG. 1 includes an example media monitor 108, and anexample central facility 110 of an audience measurement entity 112.

The media provider 102 of the illustrated example of FIG. 1 correspondsto any one or more media provider(s) capable of providing media forpresentation via the presentation device 104. The media provided by themedia provider(s) 102 can provide any type(s) of media, such as audio,video, multimedia, etc. Additionally, the media can correspond to livemedia, streaming media, broadcast media, stored media, on-demand media,etc. In some examples, the media contains metadata in a first format(e.g., signatures, watermarks, etc.). In some examples, metadataembedded in the media (e.g., watermarks, ID3 tags, etc.) is provided tothe media provider(s) 102 from an audience measurement entity.

The service provider 114 of the illustrated example of FIG. 1 providesmedia services to the presentation device 104 via, for example, webpagesincluding links (e.g., hyperlinks, embedded media, etc.) to mediaprovided by the media provider 102. In some examples, the media provider102 and the service provider 114 are the same entity. In some examples,the service provider 114 modifies the media provided by the mediaprovider 102 prior to transmitting the media to the presentation device104. In some examples, the service provider 114 of FIG. 1 extractsmetadata from the media obtained from the media provider 102. Forexample, the service provider 114 of the illustrated example implementsfunctionality provided by a software development kit (SDK) 116 providedby an audience measurement entity 112 to extract one or more audiowatermarks, one or more video (e.g., image) watermarks, etc., embeddedin the audio and/or video of the media obtained from the media provider102. (For example, the media may include pulse code modulation (PCM)audio data or other types of audio data, uncompressed video/image data,etc.). In some examples, the service provider 114 of FIG. 1 determines(e.g., derives, decodes, converts, etc.) the metadata (e.g., such asmedia identifying information, source identifying information, etc.)included in or identified by a watermark embedded in, associated with,and or transmitted with the media, and converts this metadata from thefirst format (e.g., watermarks) into a second format of metadata (e.g.,timed text tracts, ID3 tags, etc.) embedded in the media fortransmission to the presentation device 104. Additionally oralternatively, the service provider 114 may embed the second format ofmetadata into a separate metadata document, such as by encoding themetadata into an M3U8 or other data file that is to be associated with(e.g., included in, appended to, sent prior to, etc.) the media. Thesecond format of the metadata may be any type of in-band metadata orout-of-band metadata recognizable and extractable by the media monitor108.

In some examples, the service provider 114 prepares media for streamingregardless of whether (e.g., prior to) a request is received from thepresentation device 104. In such examples, the already-prepared media isstored in a data store of the service provider 114 (e.g., such as in aflash memory, magnetic media, optical media, etc.). In other examples,the service provider 114 prepares the media for streaming in response toa request received from the presentation device 104. In some suchexamples, in addition to the information (e.g., media identifyinginformation, source identifying information, etc.) contained in theoriginal metadata of the first format, the service provider 114 adds atimestamp with each individual metadata tag converted to the secondformat. Timestamping (e.g., recording a time that an event occurred)enables accurate identification and/or correlation of media that waspresented and/or the time that it was requested by or transmitted to thepresentation device 104. Once the service provider 114 has converted themetadata to the second format and inserted a timestamp into themetadata, the service provider 114 then streams the media to thepresentation device 104 via the network 106 using any suitable streamingprotocol. While the particular details to implement the service provider114 are not provided herein, many example implementations of the serviceprovider 114 may be used, such as the example implementations disclosedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/341,646, filed on Dec. 30, 2011;U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/341,661, filed on Dec. 30, 2011;U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/443,596, filed on Apr. 10, 2012;U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/455,961, filed on Apr. 25, 2012;U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/472,170, filed on May 15, 2012; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/778,114, filed on Feb. 26, 2013; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/793,974, filed on Mar. 11, 2013; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/793,983, filed on Mar. 11, 2013; and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/793,991, filed on Mar. 11, 2013; all ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

The network 106 of the illustrated example is the Internet. Additionallyor alternatively, any other network(s) communicatively linking theservice provider 114 and the presentation device such as, for example, aprivate network, a local area network (LAN), a virtual private network(VPN), etc. may be used. The network 106 may comprise any number ofpublic and/or private networks using any type(s) of networkingprotocol(s).

The presentation device 104 of the illustrated example of FIG. 1 is acomputing device that is capable of presenting streaming media providedby the service provider 114 via the network 106. In some examples, thepresentation device 104 is capable of directly presenting media (e.g.,via a display) while, in some other examples, the presentation device104 presents the media on separate media presentation equipment (e.g.,speakers, a display, etc.). The presentation device 104 may be, forexample, a tablet, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobilecomputing device, a television, a smart phone, a mobile phone, an Apple®iPad®, an Apple® iPhone®, an Apple® iPod®, an Android™ computing device,a Palm® webOS® computing device, etc. In the illustrated example, thepresentation device 104 includes a media monitor 108 (sometimes referredto as a “meter” or “media meter”). In the illustrated example, the mediamonitor 108 is implemented by metering functionality in a media player(e.g., a browser, a local application, etc.) that presents streamingmedia provided by the service provider 114. For example, the mediamonitor 108 may additionally or alternatively be implemented in Adobe®Flash® (e.g., provided in a SWF file), may be implemented in hypertextmarkup language (HTML) version 5 (HTML5), may be implemented in Google®Chromium®, may be implemented according to the Open Source MediaFramework (OSMF), may be implemented according to a device or operatingsystem provider's media player application programming interface (API),may be implemented on a device or operating system provider's mediaplayer framework (e.g., the Apple® iOS® MPMoviePlayer software), etc.,or any combination thereof. In the illustrated example, the mediamonitor 108 reports metering data (e.g., metadata tags and anycorresponding media event tags) to the central facility 110. While, forclarity, a single presentation device 104 and associated media monitor108 is illustrated in the example of FIG. 1, any number and/or type(s)of media presentation devices and associated media monitors may be used.

In the illustrated example, the central facility 110 of the illustratedexample is operated by an audience measurement entity (e.g., the NielsenCompany (US) LLC) and includes an interface to receive metering data(e.g., metadata tags and media event tags) reported from the mediamonitor 108 of the presentation device 104 via the network 106. In theillustrated example, the central facility 110 includes an HTTP interfaceto receive HTTP requests that include the metering information. The HTTPrequests are sent with the metering information in their payload. Therequests may not be intended to actually retrieve content, but areinstead used as a vehicle to convey the metering information. Thus, therequests may be referred to as dummy requests in that unlike a typicalHTTP request sent by a browser or app, the document requests are notactually intended to retrieve any media. The central facility 110 isprovided with software (e.g., a daemon) to extract the meteringinformation from the payload of the dummy request(s). Additionally oralternatively, any other method(s) to transfer the metering informationmay be used such as, for example, an HTTP Secure protocol (HTTPS), afile transfer protocol (FTP), a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), anHTTP and/or HTTPS GET request, an HTTP POST message and/or HTTPS POSTrequest, etc. In the illustrated example, the central facility 110stores and analyzes the extracted metering information received from aplurality of media monitors 108 at a plurality of different presentationdevices.

In some examples, the presentation device 104 is associated with apeople meter 118. In some examples, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the peoplemeter 118 is implemented on the presentation device 104. In otherexamples, the people meter 118 is implemented in a separate electronicdevice apart from the presentation device 104. In some examples, thepeople meter 118 contains functionality to monitor and/or track audiencemembers exposed to media playing on the presentation device by, forexample, counting the number of audience members, identifyingdemographic characteristics of the audience members, and/or specificallyidentifying the audience members (e.g., when the audience members areconsenting panelists in a particular research study). The people meter118 may be implemented in any of a variety of ways based on differentfunctionality. In some examples, the people meter 118 counts and/oridentifies the audience members actively by prompting the audiencemembers to register (e.g., login) or otherwise self-identify and/or toidentify their number and/or certain corresponding demographiccharacteristics (e.g., male/female, age bracket, etc.). In someexamples, the people meter 118 counts and/or identifies the audiencemembers passively using one or more sensors and/or other sources offeedback. For example, audio captured by a microphone associated withthe presentation device 104 and/or images (e.g., pictures, video)captured by a camera associated with the presentation device 104 may beanalyzed to monitor the audience members.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the mediamonitor 108 of FIG. 1. The example media monitor 108 of FIG. 2 includesan example media tracker 202, an example metadata extractor 204, anexample player state detector 206, an example URL event detector 208, anexample event tag generator 210, an example metadata selector 212, anexample metering data converter 214, and an example transmitter 216.

The example media tracker 202 of FIG. 2 is implemented by a processorexecuting instructions, but it could additionally or alternatively beimplemented by an analog circuit, an ASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or othercircuitry. In the illustrated example, the media tracker 202 interactswith a media player to display media via the presentation device 104. Inthe illustrated example, the media player is any type of mediapresenting framework. For example, the example media tracker 202 mayinteract with a QuickTime® application programming interface (API), anAdobe® Flash® media presentation framework, etc. In the illustratedexample, the media tracker 202 monitors streaming media received fromthe service provider 114 and presented via the media player for metadataassociated with the media. In some examples, at certain points in time,either based on a schedule or based on cues embedded in the mediastream, the media tracker 202 identifies metadata to be extracted. Forexample, at periodic intervals (e.g., every two seconds, every tenseconds, etc.) a specific metadata tag may have been embedded in themedia by the service provider 114. As each metadata tag is detected bythe media tracker 202, it will invoke the example metadata extractor 204to extract the metadata tag.

The example metadata extractor 204 of FIG. 2 is implemented by a logiccircuit such as a processor executing instructions, but it couldadditionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, anASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the mediatracker 202 and the metadata extractor 204 are implemented by the samephysical processor. In the illustrated example, the example metadataextractor 204 retrieves or extracts a metadata tag in response to thetrigger provided by the media tracker 202. Over the course of thepresentation of the streaming media, the example metadata extractorextracts a series of metadata tags associated with the media. Forexample, a metadata tag may be extracted every 2 seconds or at any otherfrequency. An example series of metadata tags extracted by the examplemetadata extractor is shown in FIG. 3. In some examples, multiple (e.g.,all) metadata tags associated with a particular media presentation areextracted and separately stored in memory by the metadata extractor 204.In some examples, later metadata tags replace previously extracted andstored metadata tags such that only a most recent portion of the seriesof metadata tags is stored in memory. In some such examples, themetadata tags are gathered to a circular buffer. In some examples, onlythe most recent metadata tag is stored by the media monitor 108.

The example player state detector 206 of FIG. 2 is implemented by alogic circuit such as a processor executing instructions, but it couldadditionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, anASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the mediatracker 202, the metadata extractor 204, and the player state detector206 are implemented by the same physical processor. In the illustratedexample, the player state detector 206 detects a state of the mediaplayer presenting the media on the presentation device. The state of themedia player corresponds to any state associated with the media playersuch as, for example, play, pause, stop, replay, rewind, forward, skip,etc. In some examples, the player state detector 206 detects a state ofthe media player by detecting presses (e.g., mouse clicks) of playercontrol buttons in the browser and/or application presenting the media.In some examples, the player state detector 206 monitors for commandsfrom a remote control associated with the media presentation device 104.In some examples, the player state detector 206 monitors the time themedia is broadcast (e.g., streamed to the media presentation device 104)compared to the time of playback to determining any time shifting eventscorresponding to player state events. While the particular details toimplement the player state detector 206 are not provided herein, manyexample implementations may be used, such as the example implementationsdisclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/916,428, filed on Jun.3, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,238,727; and U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/483,825, filed on Apr. 17, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,248,777;both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties. In some examples, a change in player state detected by theplayer state detector 206 invokes the example event tag generator 210.

The example URL event detector 208 of FIG. 2 is implemented by a logiccircuit such as a processor executing instructions, but it couldadditionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, anASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the mediatracker 202, the metadata extractor 204, the player state detector 206,and the URL event detector 208 are implemented by the same physicalprocessor (e.g., a semiconductor based logic circuit). In theillustrated example, the URL event detector 208 detects a change in theuniform resource locator (URL) being accessed by the presentation device104. In the illustrated example, a change in URL is indicative of a userrequest (and being exposed to) a different media presentation. In someexamples, the URL event detector 208 monitors the URL requested by thepresentation device 104 to detect any change in the URL. In someexamples, a change in URL is inferred from a comparison of adjacentmetadata tags extracted by the example metadata extractor 204. Forexample, at some point in time, the metadata extractor 204 may extract afirst metadata tag from media streaming on the presentation device 104followed by a second metadata tag from media streaming on thepresentation device 104. In some examples, media identifying informationin each of the metadata tags may indicate that the first and secondmetadata tags are associated with different media presentations. If so,the URL event detector 208 may infer that there was a change in URLbetween the first metadata tag and the second metadata tag to accountfor the different media being presented on the presentation device 104.In some examples, the URL event detector 208 of the example mediamonitor 108 is omitted because any URL change can be inferred duringpost-processing of the metadata (e.g., by an audience measurement entityto which the metadata is reported) in the same manner as describedabove, thereby reducing the amount of data transmitted to the centralfacility 110. In some examples, a change in URL detected by the URLevent detector 208 invokes the example event tag generator 210. In someexamples, as the player state detector 206 and the URL event detector208 invoke the event tag generator, both the player state detector 206and the URL event detector 208 are implemented together as a singlemedia event detector.

The example event tag generator 210 of FIG. 2 is implemented by a logiccircuit such as a processor executing instructions, but it couldadditionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, anASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the mediatracker 202, the metadata extractor 204, the player state detector 206,the URL event detector 208, and the event tag generator 210 areimplemented by the same physical processor. In the illustrated example,the event tag generator 210 generates a media event tag corresponding toa media event associated with the presentation of the media. In someexamples, the media event corresponds to at least one of a change in URLor a change in state of the media player. Accordingly, in some examples,the media event tag is a player state event tag corresponding to achange in state of the media player. In some examples, the player stateevent tag contains information indicative of the state to which themedia player changed. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples,the media event tag is a URL event tag corresponding to a change in theURL accessed by the presentation device 104. In some examples, the mediaevent tag(s) (e.g., the player state event tag(s) and/or the URL eventtag(s)) are transmitted, along with the metadata tags, to the centralfacility 110 for subsequent analysis and/or aggregation with meteringdata (e.g., metadata tags and media event tags) collected from otherpresentation devices.

The example metadata selector 212 of FIG. 2 is implemented by a logiccircuit such as a processor executing instructions, but it couldadditionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, anASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the mediatracker 202, the metadata extractor 204, the player state detector 206,the URL event detector 208, the event tag generator 210, and themetadata selector 212 are implemented by the same physical processor. Inthe illustrated example, the metadata selector 212 selects certainmetadata tags (e.g., a subset) from the series of metadata tagsextracted by the metadata extractor 204 for reporting or transmission tothe central facility 110. In some examples, the selected tags or subsetof metadata tags corresponds to less than all of the tags extracted bythe metadata extractor 204. Tags which are not selected are not reportedto the central facility 110. In some examples, the metadata selector 212selects metadata tags to be omitted from transmission to the centralfacility 110.

In some examples, the metadata selector 212 selects which metadata tagsare to be transmitted and/or which metadata tags are to be omitted fromtransmission based on the media events detected by the player statedetector 206 and/or the URL event detector 208, and/or the correspondingmedia event tags generated by the event tag generator 210. For example,each time a URL change event is detected (e.g., a new URL is requestedindicative of a new media presentation requested), the metadata selector212 selects a metadata tag extracted after the URL event for submissionto the central facility 110 to provide a metadata tag that is associatedwith media corresponding to the new URL (e.g., after the change).Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the metadata selector212 selects a metadata tag extracted before the URL event for submissionto the central facility 110 to provide a metadata tag that is associatedwith media corresponding to the old URL (e.g., before the change). Insome examples, the metadata selector 212 selects the metadata tag(s)approximate at the time (e.g., within +/−5 seconds in a system in whichmetadata tags are embedded every 2 seconds, within +/−15 seconds in asystem in which metadata tags are embedded every 10 seconds, etc.) ofthe occurrence of the URL event to reduce the likelihood that other URLchanges will occur in the intervening period between the selectedmetadata tag and the URL event being used as the trigger for making theselection.

In some examples, where the selected metadata tag corresponds to a tagextracted after the URL event, the metadata selector 212 selects thefirst metadata tag extracted immediately after the URL event. In thismanner, with the metadata tag being closest in time to the URL change aspossible (based on the scheduling of the metadata tag occurrences (e.g.,every two seconds)), the selected metadata tag can serve as anapproximation of the starting time of the streaming of the mediaassociated with the new URL (e.g., after the URL event) to thepresentation device 104. In some examples, where the selected metadatatag corresponds to a tag extracted before the URL event, the metadataselector 212 selects the last metadata tag extracted before the URLevent. In this manner, with the metadata tag being closest in time tothe URL change as possible, the selected metadata tag can serve as anapproximation of the ending time of the streaming of the mediaassociated with the old URL (e.g., before the URL event) to thepresentation device 104. While the last metadata tag before a URL eventmay be indicative of an ending of the streaming of the media to thepresentation device 104, the metadata tag does not necessarily indicatethat the media presentation has played through to its end because a usermay have unilaterally changed to the new URL during the middle of thepresentation of the media associated with the old URL. However, whetherthe media presentation actually ended can be determined based on thetime between the beginning of the media presentation (e.g., indicated byan earlier metadata tag selected for transmission by the metadataselector 212) and the last metadata tag before the URL event whencompared with a known duration for the media presentation.

In some examples, the first metadata tag extracted immediately after aURL is requested and the last metadata tag extracted before the URLchanges are the only metadata tags selected for transmission to thecentral facility 110. As long as the URL does not change, the mediapresented on the presentation device 104 will not change because the URLis associated with the particular media being presented. Accordingly,all intervening metadata tags extracted between the first and the lastmetadata tags can be omitted because they correspond to the same mediapresentation and, therefore, provide little, if any, additionalinformation needed by the central facility to identify the mediapresentation and/or to associate the user(s) of the presentation device104 with exposure to the media. This disclosed example can provide asignificant reduction in the amount of data that is transmitted to,stored, and/or processed by the central facility 110. In some examples,the metadata selector 212 selects other metadata tags in addition to thefirst and the last metadata tag for redundancy and/or to guard againstany unforeseen circumstances while still omitting some of the metadatatags from being reported. For instance, in some examples, the metadataselector 212 selects or identifies additional metadata tags within theseries of all metadata tags extracted by the metadata extractor 204based on periodic or aperiodic intervals. For example, the metadataselector 212 may select adjacent metadata tags in the series of metadatatags separated by a threshold number of metadata tags (e.g., every tenthtag) or a threshold amount of time (e.g., one metadata tag after everyminute). In this manner, metadata tags at a relatively high level oftemporal granularity are reported to the central facility 110 for thesake of redundancy as a heartbeat signal (e.g., indicating the device isstill powered on and the meter is still working) while stillsubstantially reducing the total amount of data transmitted to, stored,and/or processed by, the central facility 110.

In some circumstances, a user may interact with media through the mediaplayer by, for example, pausing or stopping the presentation of themedia, fast forwarding or skipping through portions of content (forpre-recorded media), or rewinding or replaying the media. In suchcircumstances, the first metadata tag extracted after requesting the URLand the last metadata tag extracted before leaving the URL may beinsufficient to adequately capture the actual exposure of the audiencemembers for purposes of generating reliable audience exposure metrics.Accordingly, in some examples, the metadata selector 212 selectsmetadata tags for transmission to the central facility 110 based onplayer state change events. In some examples, the metadata selector 212selects the metadata tag(s) extracted approximate in time (e.g., within+/−15 seconds) with the occurrence of the URL event. In some examples,the metadata selector 212 selects a most recent metadata tag extractedprior to (e.g., the last tag extracted before) the player state event.In some examples, the metadata selector 212 selects the next metadatatag extracted following (e.g., the first tag extracted immediatelyafter) the player state event. In some examples, as with URL events, themetadata selector 212 selects metadata tags both before and after aplayer state event.

The example metering data converter 214 of FIG. 2 is implemented by alogic circuit such as a processor executing instructions, but it couldadditionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, anASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the mediatracker 202, the metadata extractor 204, the player state detector 206,the URL event detector 208, the event tag generator 210, the metadataselector 212, and the metering data converter 214 are implemented by thesame physical processor. In the illustrated example, the metering dataconverter 214 converts the metadata retrieved by the metadata extractor204 into a converted metadata format for transmission to the centralfacility 110. For example, the metering data converter 214 may encrypt,decrypt, compress, modify, etc., the metadata and/or portions of themetadata to, for example, reduce the amount of data to be transmitted tothe central facility 110. Additionally or alternatively, in someexamples, the metering data converter 214 similarly converts the mediaevent tags generated by the event tag generator 210 into a convertedmedia event tag format for transmission to the central facility 110. Insome examples, the metering data converter 214 combines the metadatatags and the media event tags together to associate the media events(represented by the media event tags) with the corresponding metadatatags selected by the metadata selector 212. In some examples, themetering data (e.g., the metadata tags and the media event tags) arecombined or associated based on the ordering in which each individualtag is transmitted to the central facility 110. In some examples, themetering data converter 214 modifies the media event tags to includeidentifying information from the corresponding metadata tags (e.g., themedia event tags are modified to include the timestamp information fromthe preceding and/or follow metadata tag(s) selected for transmissionbased on the associated media event). In some examples, this informationis included in each media event tag when it is generated by the eventtag generator 210. An example series of metering data (e.g., orderedmetadata tags and corresponding media event tags) to be transmitted tothe central facility 110 is shown in FIG. 4.

The transmitter 216 of the illustrated example of FIG. 2 is implementedby a logic circuit such as a processor executing instructions, but itcould additionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit,an ASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the mediatracker 202, the metadata extractor 204, the player state detector 206,the URL event detector 208, the event tag generator 210, the metadataselector 212, the metering data converter 214, and the transmitter 216are implemented by the same physical processor. In the illustratedexample, the transmitter 216 transmits the converted metering data tothe central facility 110 via, for example, the Internet. While theconverted metering data is transmitted in substantially real-time in theillustrated example, in some examples, the converted metering data isstored, cached, and/or buffered before being transmitted to the centralfacility 110. Also, while the converted metering data is additionally oralternatively transmitted to the central facility 110 in the illustratedexample, in some examples, the metering data is additionally oralternatively transmitted to a different destination such as, forexample, a display of the presentation device 104. Additionally oralternatively, the transmitter 216 may transmit an identifier of themedia monitor 108 and/or the presentation device 104 to enable thecentral facility 110 to correlate the metering data with a panelist, agroup of panelists, demographic(s), etc. In the illustrated example, thecentral facility 110 is associated with an audience measurement companyand is not involved with the delivery of media to the presentationdevice. In some examples, the central facility 110 applies a timestampupon receipt of the converted metering data.

While an example manner of implementing the media monitor 108 of FIG. 1is illustrated in FIG. 2, one or more of the elements, processes and/ordevices illustrated in FIG. 2 may be combined, divided, re-arranged,omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way. Further, theexample media tracker 202, the example metadata extractor 204, theexample player state detector 206, the example URL event detector 208,the example event tag generator 210, the example metadata selector 212,the example metering data converter 214, the example transmitter 216,and/or, more generally, the example media monitor 108 of FIG. 2 may beimplemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or any combination ofhardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of theexample media tracker 202, the example metadata extractor 204, theexample player state detector 206, the example URL event detector 208,the example event tag generator 210, the example metadata selector 212,the example metering data converter 214, the example transmitter 216,and/or, more generally, the example media monitor 108 could beimplemented by one or more analog or digital circuit(s), logic circuits,programmable processor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s)(ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or fieldprogrammable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)). When reading any of theapparatus or system claims of this patent to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example mediatracker 202, the example metadata extractor 204, the example playerstate detector 206, the example URL event detector 208, the exampleevent tag generator 210, the example metadata selector 212, the examplemetering data converter 214, and/or the example transmitter 216 is/arehereby expressly defined to include a tangible computer readable storagedevice or storage disk such as a memory, a digital versatile disk (DVD),a compact disk (CD), a Blu-ray disk, etc. storing the software and/orfirmware. Further still, the example media monitor 108 of FIG. 1 mayinclude one or more elements, processes and/or devices in addition to,or instead of, those illustrated in FIG. 2, and/or may include more thanone of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example series of metadata tags 300 extracted bythe example media monitor 108 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 over a period of time.As shown in the illustrated example, the series of metadata tags 300 isdivided into first and second sets of metadata tags 302, 304corresponding to first and second URLs 306, 308, respectively. The firstset of metadata tags 302 begins with a first metadata tag 310, isfollowed by successive intermediate metadata tags 312, 314, 316, 318,320, 322, and ends with a last metadata tag 324. The second set ofmetadata tags 304 begins with a first metadata tag 326, followed bysuccessive intermediate metadata tags 328, 330, 332, 334, and ends witha last metadata tag 336. For purposes of explanation, the series ofmetadata tags 300 are shown in temporal relationship with a first URLevent 338 corresponding to a request for the first URL 306, a second URLevent 340 corresponding to request for the second URL 308, and a playerstate event 342 corresponding to the stopping of the media beingpresented via the presentation device 104. Although the media events(e.g., the first and second URL events 338, 340, and the player stateevent 342) are shown in the illustrated example, they are not actually apart of the series of metadata tags 300. That is, the media events 338,340, 342 correspond to the information designated inside parentheseswhereas the series of metadata tags 300 corresponds to the tags 310-324and 326-336 shown inside the curly braces (demarcating the first andsecond sets of metadata tags 302, 304) in the illustrated example.

As shown in the illustrated example of FIG. 3, each of the metadata tags310, 312, 314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332, 334, 336includes a timestamp 344 and a media identifier 346. The timestamp 344contains the timestamp information generated by the service provider 114at the time the media was requested and the corresponding metadata tagwas embedded in the media stream. The media identifier 346 contains themedia identifying information contained in the original metadata (e.g.,watermarks, signatures, codes, etc.) included in the media from themedia provider 102. In the illustrated example, the media identifier 346is a station identifier (SID) that identifies a particular station,which can be used in combination with the timestamp 344 to look up theparticular media being presented based on a program schedule for theidentified station at the identified time. In other examples, such aswhere the media is not from a station that has a scheduled programminglineup, the media identifier 346 may be a string of characters thatspecifically (e.g., uniquely) identifies the media.

In the illustrated example, media does not begin playing until the firstURL 306 is requested. At that point, media associated with the first URL306 begins streaming to the presentation device 104. As a result, asshown in the illustrated example, the metadata extractor 204 beginsextracted metadata tags. In the illustrated example, each successivemetadata tag 310, 312, 314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332,334, 336 is extracted ten seconds after the preceding metadata tag asindicated by the timestamps 344 in the tags. The one exception to theten second intervals between tags in the example of FIG. 3 is the firstmetadata tag 326 of the second set of metadata tags 304 because of somedelay due to the URL event 340. Further, as shown in the illustratedexample, the media identifier 346 for successive metadata tags 310, 312,314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332, 334, 336 remainsunchanged during each of the first and second sets of metadata tags 302,304. The media identifier 346 remains unchanged for each set of metadatatags because each set corresponds to a single media presentationassociated with a single URL. That is, each of the metadata tags 310,312, 314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 324 in the first set of metadata tags 302has the same media identifier (e.g., station identifier (SID))corresponding to the media associated with the first URL 306. Similarly,each of the metadata tags 326, 328, 330, 332, 334, 336 in the second setof metadata tags 304 has the same media identifier corresponding to themedia associated with the second URL 308. Accordingly, much of theinformation between successive tags is redundant. Therefore, inaccordance with the teachings disclosed herein, the total amount ofmetadata tags transmitted to the central facility is significantlyreduced as illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example series of metering data 400 selected fromthe example series of metadata tags 300 of FIG. 3 for transmission bythe media monitor 108 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2. In the illustrated example,the media events (including the first URL event 338, the second URLevent 340, and the player state event 342) of FIG. 3 are againdemarcated via parentheses and form no part of the series of meteringdata 400. However, in some examples, the URLs are returned as part ofthe metering data. In the example of FIG. 4, the metering data 400includes the tags shown inside the curly braces. That is, only thatwhich is shown inside the curly braces is actually transmitted to thecentral facility 110 in this example. Thus, the placement of the mediaevents (designated via parentheses) between portions of the series ofmetering data 400 in the illustrated example of FIG. 4 is for purposesof explanation to show the temporal relationship of the metering data tothe media events. Nevertheless, the URLs and/or other data may bereturned in some examples.

In the illustrated example, the series of metering data 400 includesboth metadata tags and media event tags. In particular, the series ofmetering data 400 includes the first metadata tag 310 of the first setof metadata tags 302 from FIG. 3, the last metadata tag 324 of the firstset of metadata tags 302 from FIG. 3, the first metadata tag 326 of thesecond set of metadata tags 304 from FIG. 3, and the last metadata tag336 of the second set of metadata tags 304 from FIG. 3. Further, theseries of metering data 400 includes several media event tags includinga first URL event tag 402 corresponding to the first URL event 338, asecond URL event tag 404 corresponding to the second URL event 340, anda player state event tag 406 corresponding to the player state event342. In the illustrated example, the metadata tags and media event tagsin the series of metering data 400 are ordered for transmission in theorder of occurrence. That is, the first URL event precedes the firstmetadata tag 310 of the first set of metadata tags 302, the second URLevent is preceded by the last metadata tag 324 of the first set ofmetadata tags 302 and followed by the first metadata tag 326 of thesecond set of metadata tags 304, and the last metadata tag 336 of thesecond set of metadata tags 304 is followed by the player state eventtag 406. In this manner, the media events can be readily associated withthe corresponding metadata tag(s) selected by the metadata selector 212for transmission to the central facility 110.

More particularly, in some examples, as the first URL 306 is requested,the URL event detector 208 detects the first URL event 338. In some suchexamples, the event tag generator 210 generates the first URL event tag402. In some examples, based on the detected first URL event 338, themetadata selector 212 identifies or selects the first metadata tagextracted by the metadata extractor 204 immediately after the URL event338, which corresponds to the first metadata tag 310 of the first set ofmetadata tags 302 of the series of metadata tags 300 of FIG. 3. Thus, inthe illustrated example, when the first URL event tag 402 istransmitted, it is immediately followed by the transmission of the firstmetadata tag 310. As the media associated with the first URL 306continues to be streamed, the metadata extractor 204 successivelyextracts each of the intermediate metadata tags 312, 314, 316, 318, 320,322 of the first set of metadata tags 302. However, the metadataselector 212 does not select any of the intermediate tags fortransmission because there is no media event to trigger such aselection. The metadata extractor 204 then extracts the last metadatatag 324 of first set of metadata tags 302. However, it is not until theURL event detector 208 detects the second URL event 340 that themetadata selector 212 selects the last metadata tag 324 for transmissionto the central facility 110. For this reason, the second URL event 340is shown as occurring earlier in time to the transmission of the lastmetadata tag 324 even though the last metadata tag 324 was extractedbefore the second URL event 340 occurs. In some examples, the orderingis changed. However, in the illustrated example, the second URL eventtag 404 is transmitted after transmitting the last metadata tag 324.Immediately following the transmission of the second URL event tag 404,the first metadata tag 326 of the second set of metadata tags 304 isalso transmitted. The first metadata tag 326 is selected fortransmission by the metadata selector 212 because it is the first tagextracted by the metadata extractor 204 immediately after the second URLevent 340. In the illustrated example, the metadata extractor 204continues to extract the intermediate metadata tags 328, 330, 332, 334of the second set of metadata tags 304 followed by the last metadata tag336. After the last metadata tag 336 is extracted, the metadata selector212 selects the last metadata tag 336 for transmission based on theplayer state event 342. However, to maintain the ordering of data insidethe series of metering data 400, the last metadata tag 336 istransmitted followed by the player state event tag 406.

In some examples, the ordering of transmission of the tags in the seriesof metering data 400 is different. For instance, as the second URL event340 is the basis for selecting both the last metadata tag 324 extractedbefore the URL event 340 and the first metadata tag 326 after the URLevent 340, in some examples, the URL event tag 404 is transmitted whenthe URL event 340 is detected followed by both metadata tags 324, 326.In some examples, the URL event tags are not included in the series ofmetering data 400. Rather, the URL events 338, 340 can be inferred fromthe transmitted metadata tags 310, 324, 326, 336. For example, the mediamonitor 108 does not collect metadata until a URL associated with mediahas been requested. Thus, the mere existence of the first metadata tag310 indicates that a new URL has been accessed. Likewise, the change inthe media identifier 346 between the last metadata tag 324 and the firstmetadata tag 326 indicates that different media is being streamed, whichcorresponds to a change in URL. Thus, adjacent metadata tags that areassociated with different media indicate that a change in URL occurredbetween the two metadata tags. In some examples, the player state eventtag 406 is still transmitted to enable the central facility 110 todistinguish between media that is still streaming but has not arrived atanother URL change (to trigger the transmission of another metadata tag)and media that has stopped streaming because the media player hasstopped.

Accordingly, in some examples, the only information within the series ofmetering data 400 that is sent to the central facility 110 are fourmetadata tags (e.g., the metadata tags 310, 324, 326, 336) and one mediaevent tag (e.g., the player state event tag 406). This is a substantialreduction from the amount of data extracted from the media as indicatedin the series of metadata tags 300 of FIG. 3 because all of theintermediate metadata tags 312, 314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 328, 330, 332,334 are omitted from the series of metering data 400. Furthermore, ifthe metadata tags were extracted at two second intervals (instead of tensecond intervals as illustrated), the total number of metadata tags inthe series of metadata tags 300 would be five times greater. However,there would be no increase in the number of tags transmitted to thecentral facility 110 as part of the series of metering data 400 furtherillustrating the substantial reduction in information transmitted inaccordance with the teachings disclosed herein. Further still, while anincrease in the duration of the media would add to the amount ofmetadata extracted, it has no effect on the amount of metadatatransmitted and still enables the central facility 110 to acquire allthe needed information for generating audience metrics. That is, while amajority of the metadata tags from the series of metadata tags 300 ofFIG. 3 are omitted in the series of metering data 400 of FIG. 4, all ofthe relevant information for audience measurement purposes contained inthe series of metadata tags 300 of FIG. 3 is preserved in the series ofmetering data 400 of FIG. 4. For example, the timestamps 344 of thefirst and last metadata tag 310, 324 of the first set of metadata tags302 can be used to identify the beginning and end of the streaming ofthe media associated with the first URL 306. Further, the mediaidentifier 346 of the first and last metadata tag 310, 324 of the firstset of metadata tags 302 can be used to identify the media associatedwith the first URL 306 (or at least the station to then look up theparticular media). Likewise, the first and last metadata tag 326, 336 ofthe second set of metadata tags 304 can be used to identify thebeginning and end of the streaming media and the particular media beingstreamed. While the timestamp 344 of the intermediate metadata tags 312,314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 328, 330, 332, 334 are not provided in theseries of metering data 400 of FIG. 4, such information is unnecessaryto fully identify the media to which user(s) were exposed and theduration or timing of the exposure(s).

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the examplecentral facility 110 of FIG. 1. The central facility 110 of theillustrated example of FIG. 5 includes an example communicationinterface 502, an example metering data parser 504, an example analyzer506, and an example database 508.

In the illustrated example, the communication interface 502, which maybe implemented by a modem or other communication device, serves tocommunicate with one or more of the media provider 102, the serviceprovider 114, or the presentation device 104. In some examples, thecentral facility 110 provides watermarks via the communication interface502 to the media provider 102 for embedding in the media provided to endusers by the service providers 114. In some examples, the communicationinterface 502 of the central facility 110 receives the metering datatransmitted from the presentation device 104. In some examples, thereceived metering data is stored on the example database 508. In someexamples, the central facility 110 provides the software development kit116 to the service provider 114. In some examples, the central facility110 provides the media monitor 108 via the communication interface 502for implementation on the presentation device 104. In some examples, thecommunication interface 502 provides the media monitor 108 to thirdparty application developers to be embedded or incorporated intodeveloped applications that may subsequently be downloaded and/orinstalled by a user on the presentation device 104. In some examples,the communication interface 502 provides the media monitor 108 directlyto an end user for execution on the presentation device 104.

The example metering data parser 504 of FIG. 5 is implemented by a logiccircuit such as a processor executing instructions, but it couldadditionally or alternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, anASIC, DSP, FPGA, and/or other circuitry. In some examples, thecommunication interface 502 and the metering data parser 504 areimplemented by the same physical processor. In the illustrated example,the metering data parser 504 parses the collected metering data todetermine what portions are metadata tags and what portions are mediaevent tags.

The example analyzer 506 of FIG. 5 is implemented by a logic circuitsuch as a processor executing instructions, but it could additionally oralternatively be implemented by an analog circuit, an ASIC, DSP, FPGA,and/or other circuitry. In some examples, the communication interface502, the metering data parser 504, and the analyzer 506 are implementedby the same physical processor. In the illustrated example, the analyzer506 analyzes the metering data to determine the exposure of a user tothe media presented on the presentation device 104 for the purpose ofgenerating audience measurement reports. In some examples, the analyzer506 determines the particular media being presented on the presentationdevice based on the media identifier 346 contained in the metadata tagsassociated with the media. For example, the central facility may look upa programming schedule (e.g., stored in the example database 508)corresponding to the particular station identifier (SID) in the mediaidentifier 346 to determine the particular content being streamed at thetime indicated in the timestamp 344. In some examples, where the mediaidentifier 346 is content specific (e.g., uniquely identifies aparticular program), the central facility 110 may look up thecorresponding content in a database (e.g., the database 508).

Further, in some examples, the analyzer 506 determines the beginning andending of streaming the media based on the timestamp 344 of the firstand last metadata tags associated with the particular media. In someexamples, the analyzer 506 identifies the first and last metadata tagsbased on associated URL events. In some examples, the analyzer 506identifies URL events based on URL event tags included in the meteringdata. In some examples, the metering data does not include URL eventtags. In some such examples, the analyzer 506 identifies URL eventsbased on a comparison of adjacent metadata tags. For example, theanalyzer 506 may determine that a URL event has occurred when the mediaidentifiers 346 of adjacent metadata tags are different. In addition toidentifying the beginning and ending of streaming of the media, theexample analyzer 506 may also determine any changes to the operatingmode of the media presentation device (e.g., a sudden stopping of themedia without a URL change based on player state events indicated byplayer state event tags). In this manner, the analyzer 506 can generatethe same audience metrics as would be available if all metadata tagswere transmitted but with far less data being transmitted. As a result,the central facility 110 is enabled to receive exposure data from a muchlarger population (e.g., census wide) without significant demands onincreased bandwidth of the servers of the central facility 110 throughwhich the metering data is received. Additionally, in some examples, theanalyzer 506 processes demographics information collected (directly orindirectly) from the audience members to correlate with the exposuredata to generate ratings data and/or other audience measurement reports.

While an example manner of implementing the central facility 110 of FIG.1 is illustrated in FIG. 5, one or more of the elements, processesand/or devices illustrated in FIG. 5 may be combined, divided,re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way.Further, the example communication interface 502, the example meteringdata parser 504, the example analyzer 506, the example database 508,and/or, more generally, the example central facility 110 of FIG. 5 maybe implemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or any combination ofhardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of theexample communication interface 502, the example metering data parser504, the example analyzer 506, the example database 508, and/or, moregenerally, the example central facility 110 could be implemented by oneor more analog or digital circuit(s), logic circuits, programmableprocessor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)),programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logicdevice(s) (FPLD(s)). When reading any of the apparatus or system claimsof this patent to cover a purely software and/or firmwareimplementation, at least one of the example communication interface 502,the example metering data parser 504, the example analyzer 506, and/orthe example database 508 is/are hereby expressly defined to include atangible computer readable storage device or storage disk such as amemory, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a compact disk (CD), a Blu-raydisk, etc. storing the software and/or firmware. Further still, theexample central facility 110 of FIG. 1 may include one or more elements,processes and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, thoseillustrated in FIG. 5, and/or may include more than one of any or all ofthe illustrated elements, processes and devices.

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the media monitor 108 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 is shown in FIG.6. In this example, the machine readable instructions comprise a programfor execution by a processor such as the processor 812 shown in theexample processor platform 800 discussed below in connection with FIG.8. The program may be embodied in software stored on a tangible computerreadable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, adigital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray disk, or a memory associatedwith the processor 812, but the entire program and/or parts thereofcould alternatively be executed by a device other than the processor 812and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware. Further, although theexample program is described with reference to the flowchart illustratedin FIG. 6, many other methods of implementing the example media monitor108 may alternatively be used. For example, the order of execution ofthe blocks may be changed, and/or some of the blocks described may bechanged, eliminated, or combined.

Turning in detail to FIG. 6, the example program begins at block 602where the example media tracker 202 presents media requested via a URL.At block 604, the example metadata extractor 204 extracts a metadata tagfrom the media. At block 606, the example metadata selector 212determines whether the extracted metadata tag is the first metadata tagafter the URL request. If the example metadata selector 212 determinesthat the extracted metadata tag is the first metadata tag after the URLrequest, then the metadata selector 212 selects the metadata tag fortransmission and control advances to block 608. At block 608, theexample transmitter 216 transmits the first metadata tag (e.g., to thecentral facility 110) and then control returns to block 604 where themetadata extractor 204 extracts subsequent metadata tags from the media.If the example metadata selector 212 determines (at block 606) that theextracted metadata tag is not the first metadata tag after the URLrequest, control advances to block 610.

At block 610, the example metadata selector determines whether to sendan update. In some examples, an update is sent if a threshold amount oftime has elapsed or a threshold number of metadata tags have beenextracted without selection for transmission to the central facility. Ifthe example metadata selector determines to send an update, controladvances to block 612 where the example transmitter 216 transmits thelast metadata tag extracted. That is, in some examples, when an updateis to be sent, the metadata selector 212 selects the most recentmetadata tag extracted by the metadata extractor 204 for transmission tothe central facility. After the last metadata tag extracted istransmitted (block 612) control advances to block 614. If the examplemetadata selector determines not to send an update, control advancesdirectly to block 614.

At block 614, the example player state detector 206 determines whether aplayer state event has occurred. In some examples, a player state eventcorresponds to a change in the state of the media player presenting themedia. If the example player state detector 206 determines that a playerstate event has occurred, control advances to block 616 where theexample event tag generator 210 generates a player state event tag. Atblock 618, the example transmitter 216 transmits the player state eventtag. At block 620, the example transmitter 216 transmits the last (e.g.,most recent) metadata tag extracted. Additionally or alternatively, insome examples, the transmitter 216 transmits the first (e.g., next)metadata tag extracted after the player state event. Control thenadvances to block 622. Returning to block 614, if the example playerstate detector 206 determines that a player state event has notoccurred, control advances directly to block 622.

At block 622, the example URL event detector 208 determines whether aURL event has occurred. In some examples, a URL event corresponds to achange in the URL requested by a user via the presentation device 104.If the example URL event detector 208 determines that no URL event hasoccurred, control returns to block 604 to continue extracting metadatafrom the media. If the example URL event detector 208 determines (atblock 622) that a URL event has occurred, control advances to block 624where the example transmitter 216 transmits the last metadata tagextracted (e.g., the most recent metadata tag extracted before the URLevent). At block 626, the example program determines whether to continuemonitoring for metadata. If monitoring is to continue, control returnsto block 604. If monitoring is not to continue, the example programends.

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions forimplementing the central facility 110 of FIGS. 1 and/or 5 is shown inFIG. 7. In this example, the machine readable instructions comprise aprogram for execution by a processor such as the processor 812 shown inthe example processor platform 800 discussed below in connection withFIG. 8. The program may be embodied in software stored on a tangiblecomputer readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a harddrive, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray disk, or a memoryassociated with the processor 812, but the entire program and/or partsthereof could alternatively be executed by a device other than theprocessor 812 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware.Further, although the example program is described with reference to theflowchart illustrated in FIG. 7, many other methods of implementing theexample central facility 110 may alternatively be used. For example, theorder of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or some of theblocks described may be changed, eliminated, or combined.

Turning in detail to FIG. 7, the example program begins at block 702where the example communication interface 502 provides a media monitor(e.g., the media monitor 108) for implementation on a presentationdevice (e.g., the presentation device 104). In some examples, thecommunication interface 502 provides the media monitor 108 directly to auser for implementation on the presentation device 104. In otherexamples, the communication interface 502 provides the media monitor 108to a third party developer for inclusion in an application that maysubsequently be implemented on the presentation device 104. At block704, the example communication interface 502 receives metering data fromthe media monitor 108.

At block 706, the example metering data parser 504 determines whetherthe metering data includes a URL event tag. If the example metering dataparser 504 determines that the metering data does not include a URLevent tag, control advances to block 708. At block 708, the exampleanalyzer 506 determines whether adjacent metadata tags have differentmedia identifiers (e.g., the media identifiers 346). If the exampleanalyzer 506 determines that the adjacent metadata tags do havedifferent media identifiers, control advances to block 710 where theexample analyzer 506 infers a URL event between the adjacent metadatatags. At block 712, the example analyzer 506 associates the firstmetadata tag after the URL event with a beginning of exposure to mediaidentified by the first metadata tag. Returning to block 706, if theexample metering data parser 504 determines that the metering data doesinclude a URL event tag, control advances directly to block 712. Atblock 714, the example analyzer 506 associates the metadata tagimmediately preceding the URL event with an ending of exposure to mediaidentified by the last metadata tag. Control then advances to block 716.Returning to block 708, if the example analyzer 506 determines that theadjacent metadata tags do not have different media identifiers, controladvances directly to block 716.

At block 716, the example metering data parser 504 determines whetherthe metering data includes a player state event tag. If the examplemetering data parser 504 determines that the metering data does includea player state event tag, control advances to block 718 where theexample analyzer 506 determines the player state indicated by the playerstate invent tag. At block 720, the example analyzer 506 determinesmedia exposure based on the player state. For example, if the playerstate event corresponds to a stopping of the media player, the exampleanalyzer 506 determines that the user of the presentation device 104 isno longer being exposed to the media after the stop event. Control thenadvances to block 722. Returning to block 716, if the example meteringdata parser 504 determines that the metering data does not include aplayer state event tag, control advances directly to block 722. At block722, the example communication interface 502 determines whether moremetering data is received. If more metering data is received, controlreturns to block 706. If no more metering data is received, the exampleprogram of FIG. 8 ends.

As mentioned above, the example processes of FIGS. 6 and 7 may beimplemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machinereadable instructions) stored on a tangible computer readable storagemedium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory(ROM), a compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a cache, arandom-access memory (RAM) and/or any other storage device or storagedisk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extendedtime periods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarilybuffering, and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, theterm tangible computer readable storage medium is expressly defined toinclude any type of computer readable storage device and/or storage diskand to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. Asused herein, “tangible computer readable storage medium” and “tangiblemachine readable storage medium” are used interchangeably. Additionallyor alternatively, the example processes of FIGS. 6 and 7 may beimplemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machinereadable instructions) stored on a non-transitory computer and/ormachine readable medium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, aread-only memory, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a cache, arandom-access memory and/or any other storage device or storage disk inwhich information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extended timeperiods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarily buffering,and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, the termnon-transitory computer readable medium is expressly defined to includeany type of computer readable storage device and/or storage disk and toexclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. As usedherein, when the phrase “at least” is used as the transition term in apreamble of a claim, it is open-ended in the same manner as the term“comprising” is open ended.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 800 capableof executing the instructions of FIGS. 6 and/or 7 to implement the mediamonitor 108 and/or the central facility 110 of FIG. 1. The processorplatform 800 can be, for example, a server, a personal computer, amobile device (e.g., a cell phone, a smart phone, a tablet such as aniPad™), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a DVDplayer, a CD player, a digital video recorder, a Blu-ray player, agaming console, a personal video recorder, a set top box, or any othertype of computing device.

The processor platform 800 of the illustrated example includes aprocessor 812. The processor 812 of the illustrated example is hardware.For example, the processor 812 can be implemented by one or moreintegrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors or controllers fromany desired family or manufacturer.

The processor 812 of the illustrated example includes a local memory 813(e.g., a cache). The processor 812 of the illustrated example is incommunication with a main memory including a volatile memory 814 and anon-volatile memory 816 via a bus 818. The volatile memory 814 may beimplemented by Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), DynamicRandom Access Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory (RDRAM)and/or any other type of random access memory device. The non-volatilememory 816 may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desiredtype of memory device. Access to the main memory 814, 816 is controlledby a memory controller.

The processor platform 800 of the illustrated example also includes aninterface circuit 820. The interface circuit 820 may be implemented byany type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, auniversal serial bus (USB), and/or a PCI express interface.

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 822 are connectedto the interface circuit 820. The input device(s) 822 permit(s) a userto enter data and commands into the processor 812. The input device(s)can be implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, acamera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, a mouse, a touchscreen, atrack-pad, a trackball, isopoint and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 824 are also connected to the interfacecircuit 820 of the illustrated example. The output devices 824 can beimplemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., a light emittingdiode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystaldisplay, a cathode ray tube display (CRT), a touchscreen, a tactileoutput device, a light emitting diode (LED), a printer and/or speakers).The interface circuit 820 of the illustrated example, thus, typicallyincludes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip or a graphicsdriver processor.

The interface circuit 820 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem and/or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal machines (e.g., computing devices of any kind) via a network826 (e.g., an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL), atelephone line, coaxial cable, a cellular telephone system, etc.).

The processor platform 800 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 828 for storing software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 828 include floppy disk drives,hard drive disks, compact disk drives, Blu-ray disk drives, RAIDsystems, and digital versatile disk (DVD) drives.

The coded instructions 832 of FIGS. 6 and/or 7 may be stored in the massstorage device 828, in the volatile memory 814, in the non-volatilememory 816, and/or on a removable tangible computer readable storagemedium such as a CD or DVD.

Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacturehave been disclosed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is notlimited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods,apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope ofthe claims of this patent.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and memoryincluding machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause theprocessor to: extract a series of tags associated with media playing ona presentation device, different ones of the tags in the series of thetags embedded in the media at different temporal positions within aduration of the media; identify a first tag from the series of tags toreport to a central facility, the first tag identified based on atemporal proximity of the first tag to an event associated with themedia playing on the presentation device; and transmit the first tag tothe central facility, other tags in the series of tags not beingtransmitted to the central facility.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the first tag corresponds to a last tag extracted in the seriesof tags before the event.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the firsttag corresponds to an earliest tag extracted in the series of tags afterthe event.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the media is associatedwith a first uniform resource locator accessed by the presentationdevice.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the media is first media,the event corresponding to a change from a second uniform resourcelocator accessed by the presentation device to the first uniformresource locator, the second uniform resource locator associated withsecond media different than the first media associated with the firstuniform resource locator.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein theprocessor is to: identify a second tag associated with the second mediafor reporting to the central facility; and transmit the second tag withthe first tag, the first tag and the second tag indicative of an endingof the second media associated with the second uniform resource locatorand a beginning of the first media associated with the first uniformresource locator.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor isto: identify a subset of the series of tags to report to the centralfacility, the subset including the first tag and additional tags,temporally adjacent ones of the additional tags separated within theduration of the media by at least one of the other tags not transmittedto the central facility; and transmit the subset of the series of tagsto the central facility.
 8. An apparatus comprising: means forextracting a series of tags associated with media playing on apresentation device, different ones of the tags in the series of thetags embedded in the media at different temporal positions within aduration of the media; means for identifying a first tag from the seriesof tags to report to a central facility, the first tag identified basedon a temporal proximity of the first tag to an event associated with themedia playing on the presentation device; and means for transmitting thefirst tag to the central facility, other tags in the series of tags notbeing transmitted to the central facility, the first tag being extractedat a different point in time than the other tags.
 9. The apparatus ofclaim 8, wherein the first tag corresponds to a last tag extracted inthe series of tags before the event.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8,wherein the first tag corresponds to an earliest tag extracted in theseries of tags after the event.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, whereinthe media is associated with a first uniform resource locator accessedby the presentation device.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein themedia is first media, the event corresponding to a change from a seconduniform resource locator accessed by the presentation device to thefirst uniform resource locator, the second uniform resource locatorassociated with second media different than the first media associatedwith the first uniform resource locator.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12,wherein the identifying means is to identify a second tag associatedwith the second media for reporting to the central facility, and thetransmitting means is to transmit the second tag with the first tag, thefirst tag and the second tag indicative of an ending of the second mediaassociated with the second uniform resource locator and a beginning ofthe first media associated with the first uniform resource locator. 14.The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the identifying means is to identify asubset of the series of tags to report to the central facility, thesubset including the first tag and additional tags, temporally adjacentones of the additional tags separated within the duration of the mediaby at least one of the other tags not transmitted to the centralfacility, the transmitting means is to transmit the subset of the seriesof tags to the central facility.
 15. A non-transitory computer readablemedium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor toat least: extract a series of tags associated with media playing on apresentation device, different ones of the tags in the series of thetags embedded in the media at different temporal positions within aduration of the media; identify a first tag from the series of tags toreport to a central facility, the first tag identified based on atemporal proximity of the first tag to an event associated with themedia playing on the presentation device; and transmit the first tag tothe central facility, other tags in the series of tags not beingtransmitted to the central facility.
 16. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 15, wherein the first tag corresponds to a lasttag extracted in the series of tags before the event.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the firsttag corresponds to an earliest tag extracted in the series of tags afterthe event.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15,wherein the media is associated with a first uniform resource locatoraccessed by the presentation device.
 19. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 18, wherein the media is first media, the eventcorresponding to a change from a second uniform resource locatoraccessed by the presentation device to the first uniform resourcelocator, the second uniform resource locator associated with secondmedia different than the first media associated with the first uniformresource locator.
 20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein theinstructions further cause the processor to: identify a subset of theseries of tags to report to the central facility, the subset includingthe first tag and additional tags, temporally adjacent ones of theadditional tags separated within the duration of the media by at leastone of the other tags not transmitted to the central facility; andtransmit the subset of the series of tags to the central facility.